Cigarette holder with tar collecting means

ABSTRACT

A cigarette holder comprising tar collecting means formed as a cartridge, said cartridge comprising a substantially cylindrical vessel opened at one end thereof and substantially closed at the other end thereof except a relatively small opening, and first and second disk members mounted at the open end of said vessel to close said open end, said first disk member having at least one small opening, said second disk member being provided with a central downstream struck-out portion providing a rectangular opening through the second disk, thereby providing a transverse band flanked by a pair of openings such that smoke enters the cartridge through the small central opening in the first disk and is accellerated thereby, strikes the transverse band in the second disk, divides and makes either of two possible 90* turns through either of the pair of openings toward the inside wall of the cartridge. The smoke is drawn through and out of the cartridge through the small opening in the substantially closed end thereof.

United States Patent Terasaki 1 Dec. 17, 1974 CIGARETTE HOLDER WITH TAR COLLECTING MEANS [22] Filed: Feb. 13, 1973 [21] Appl. No.: 332,155

[76] Inventor:

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data May 2, 1972 Japan 47-51235 [52] U.S. Cl. 131/210, 131/261 B [51] Int. Cl. A24f 13/06 [58] Field ofSearch 13l/210,21l,212 R, 105, 131/261 B [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,511,898 6/1950 Brothers 131/211 X 3,196,881 7/1965 Walters 131/210 X 3,234,949 2/1966 White et a1. 131/210 X 3.254.655 6/1966 Vance et 131/211 X 3,269,394 8/1966 Curtis, .lr. 131/210 3,508,558 4/1970 Seyburn 131/212 R X 3,616,802 11/1971 Marinaccio 131/261 B Primary Examiner-Joseph S. Reich Attorney, Agent, or FirmStewart and Kolasch, Ltd.

[57] ABSTRACT A cigarette holder comprising tar collecting means formed as a cartridge, said cartridge comprising a substantially cylindrical vessel opened at one end thereof and substantially closed at the other end thereof except a relatively small opening, and first and second disk members mounted at the open end of said vessel to close said open end, said first disk member having at least one small opening, said second disk member being provided with a central downstream struck-out portion providing a rectangular opening through the second disk, thereby providing a transverse band flanked by a pair of openings such that smoke enters the cartridge through the small central opening in the first disk and is accellerated thereby, strikes the transverse band in the second disk, divides and makes either of two possible 90 turns through either of the pair of openings toward the inside wall of the cartridge The smoke is drawn through and out of the cartridge through the small opening in the substantially closed end thereof.

7 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures PAIENM m3 1 7 I974 FIG FIG.

FIG.

CIGARETTE HOLDER WITH TAR COLLECTING MEANS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention This invention relates to a cigarette holder with tar collecting means for collecting the tar contained in the tobacco smoke.

2. Description of the Prior Art It is known that so-called tar contained in the tobacco smoke is harmful for the human body, and in this connection there have heretofore been proposed many pipes and cigarette holders equipped with various kinds of tar collecting means. The conventionally known tar collecting methods may be classified into several types such as to removed the tar component by leading the smoke through a layer of fibers and/or powders and having the tar particles attached to the fibers and/or powders, to remove the tar cornponent by making a smoke stream iminge against a solid surface at a high velocity, thus having the tar particles attached on and caught by the solid surface, and to remove the tar component by any means available.

As one of this type of tar collecting means there is known a tar collecting means formed as a vessel shaped cartrige adapted to collect tar therein, which, after having collected a substantial amount of tar, is to be replaced by a new one. A tar collecting means of this known type, which was proposed by the same applicant as the present applicant, comprises a cylindrical vessel closed at one end thereof leaving a small opening through which the tobacco smoke is introduced into the vessel as a stream at high velocity, said stream being adapted to impinge against an end surface ofa column member provided along the central axis of the vessel so that the tar particles contained in the smoke are attached on and caught by the end surface.

The tar collecting means of this structure shows a very high tar collecting performance and can hold the collected tar within the vessel. However, since in this case the column member of a relatively large diameter is provided within the vessel, the inside space of the vessel is so much reduced that there is a drawback that the tar collecting capacity of one cartridge is relatively reduced.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, it is the object of the invention to remove the abovementioned drawback in the formerly proposed tar collecting means and to provide a cigarette holder equipped with improved tar collecting cartridge of the smoke impingement principle having a large tar collecting capacity.

The abovementioned object is accomplished, according to this invention, by a cigarette holder comprising a cigarette holding member, a mouthpiece member, both members being removably engaged with each other, and a tar collecting cartridge provided in the way of a smoke passage formed in and extended through said cigarette holding and mouthpiece members, characterized in that said cartridge comprises a substantially cylindrical vessel opened at one end thereof and substantially closed at the other end thereof except a relatively small opening, and first and second disk members mounted at the open end of said vessel to close said open end, said first disk member having at least one small opening, said second disk member being adapted to provide a surface region confronting said small opening and at least one opening formed adjacent said surface region.

When a suction is applied at the mouthpiece member of the abovementioned cigarette holder, the tobacco smoke passes through said small opening of the first disk member generating a smoke stream at a high velocity, which, in an instant, impinges against said surface region of the second disk member, whereby the smoke stream is abruptly deflected sideward and flows through said opening provided adjacent said surface region and flows through the cylindrical vessel.

When the smoke stream is abruptly deflected as mentioned above, tar particles contained in the smoke stream which have a higher inertia than the smoke gases, impinge directly against and are caught by said surface region, and thus the tar component is removed from the tobacco smoke. Since in this case the opening for generating the smoke stream at a high velocity and the surface region adapted to confront said opening and catch the tar particles contained in the smoke stream are both provided by the first and second disk members mounted at the open end of the vessel, the substantially whole inside space of the vessel is left free for accumlating the tar caught by said surface region.

Said surface region confronting the smoke stream generating opening with a proper spacing therefrom for allowing the deflected flow of the smoke stream and a little accumlation of the collected tar upon the surface region is preferably formed by making a cut at a portion of the second disk member and displacing a portion adjacent the cut relative to the remaining portion of the disk surrounding the displaced portion, wherein after the displacement the cut portion is opened to form the opening adjacent the surface for leading the deflected smoke stream into the inside of the vessel. The cut may be formed as two cuts arranged substantially in parallel so that the portion residing between the two cuts is displaced with respect to the remaining portion of the disk, wherein the opening provided adjacent said surface region for leading the deflected smoke stream into the vessel is formed one at each opposite side of the surface region provided by the displaced portion. In either case the first disk member having the smoke stream generating opening and the second disk member providing the surface region for the impingement of the smoke stream may be closely piled one over the other at the peripheral portions of the disks, whereby the spacing of the surface region from the smoke stream generating opening is automatically determined by the degree of displacement of the displaced portion formed adjacent the cut.

In order to generate the smoke stream confronting the surface region at a velocity high enough to accomplish a high tar collecting efficiency due to a large difference in inertia between the tar particles and the smoke stream gases without uncomfortably increasing the draught to be applied by sucking, it is favorable that cross-sectional area of the stream generating opening is about 0.2 mm and not much smaller or larger than that. The stream constriction opening may be provided in singularity or in plurality, particularly two, if the total cross-sectional area of such openings is of the order as mentioned above.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING In the accompanying drawing,

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a cigarette holder as an embodiment of this invention;

FIG. 2 is a longitudinal section of the cigarette holder shown in FIG. 1 along line II-ll; and

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the cartridge used in the cigarette holder shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, wherein some elements are disassembled while another is partly broken for the purpose of illustration.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT In the following, this invention is described in more detail of a preferred embodiment with reference to the accompanying drawing. Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, reference numerals 1 and 2 designate a cigarette holding member and a mouthpiece member, respectively, both members being removably engaged with each other at the screw engaging portions 3. The cigarette holding member 1 is formed with a cigarette mounting bore 4, a smoke stream constricting portion 5 and a cartridge mounting bore 6 in which a cartridge 7 is removably mounted. 8 is a packing ring provided-at an end of the cartridge mounting bore 6. The'cartridge 7 mounted in the cartridge mounting bore 6 is held between the packing ring 8 and an end face 9 of the mouthpiece member 2.

The cartridge 7 is composed of a cylindrical vessel 10 made of a synthetic resin and first and second disk members 11 and 12 preferably made of a metal. In the shown embodiment, the disk member 11 is formed with one small opening 13 at a central portion thereof, the small opening 13 having cross-sectional area of about 0.2 mm The disk member 12 is formed with a band region 14 defined by a pair of cuts 15, said band region being displaced with respect to the remaining portion surrounding the same by press forming. An open end of the cylindrical vessel 10 is formed with a counterbore 16 having a diameter smaller than the outer diameter of the disk members l1, 12 by a proper amount for stably mounting these disks by interference fitting and a depth equal to the total of the thicknesses of the disk members 11 and 12.

In assembling the cartridge 7, the disk member 12 is first mounted into the counterbore l6, and thereafter, the disk member 11 is mounted into the counterbore so as to be piled in close contact with the disk member 12. In this mounted condition the spacing of the stream impingement surface presented by the band region 14 from the outlet of the small opening 13 is automatically selected. In order to make the assembling of the cartridge 7 easier, it is preferable that the diameter of the disk member 12 is made a little smaller than that of the disk member 11, whereby the disk member 12 is first mounted relatively loosely into the counterbore l6, and thereafter, the disk member 11 is mounted relatively tightly into the counterbore 16 so that the two disk members are altogether held stably by the tight mounting of the disk member 11.

As apparent from the drawing, by the displacement of the band region 14 two lateral outlet ports are formed in the disc 12. The band region 14 is displaced by an amount larger than the thickness of the disk member 12. Thus the smoke stream impinging surface is spaced from the smoke constriction opening 13 by a predetermined distance and also said pair. of smoke outlet ports are formed at the opposite sides of the smoke impinging surface.

At a bottom portion of the cylindrical vessel 10, there is formed a smoke outlet port 19 rimmed by an annular projection 18. The tobacco smoke removed of the tar component in the cartridge 7 flows out of the cartridge through the smoke outlet port 19 and is sucked through the mouthpiece member 2. By forming the annular projection 18 to be of a proper height, it is avoided that the tar contained in thecartridge leaks out of the cartridge through the smoke outlet port 19 even when a predetermined amount oftar has been accumlated. A tubular projection 20 is provided for the convenience of bolding the cartridge by the tips of fingers when the cartridge is loaded into or removed from the cigarette holder.

When a cigarette is mounted to the cigarette mounting bore 4 of the shown cigarette holder and is lit, and suction is applied at an open end of the mouthpiece 2, the tobacco smoke is formed into a thin stream at a high velocity by being constricted at the small opening 13 and impinges substantially perpendicularly against the smoke impinging surface presented by the band region 14. Here the smoke stream is abruptly deflected by about 90 and flows into the inside space of the cylindrical vessel 10 through the openings 17. However, the tar particles suspended in the smoke stream stick onto the smoke impinging surface when the smoke stream impinges the surface, and are caught there. As the tar accumlates gradually to form a mass, which is relatively fluidal, it is urged by the subsequent flow of the smoke stream and first reaches the band region 14 and gradually flows over that surface portion of the disk member 12 until it reaches inside wall of the cylindrical vessel 10 to be accumlated there to gradually fill the inside space of the vessel. When the cylindrical vessel 10 has been filled with a large amount of tar and it has come the time to replace the cartridge, the mouthpiece member 2 is removed from the cigarette holding member 1 by disengaging the screw engaging portions 3, and then the cartridge is taken out by holding it at the tubular projection 20 to be replaced by a new cartridge.

I claim:

1. A cigarette holder comprising a cigarette holding member and a mouth piece member, both of said members being removably engaged with respect to each other and defining a smoke passage extending therethrough, and a tar collecting cartridge provided within said smoke passage, said tar collecting cartridge being composed of a substantially cylindrical vessel open at one end and having a substantially restricted opening at the other end thereof and first and second disc members mounted in the open end portion of said vessel to substantially close said open end, said first disc member having at least one small opening adapted to introduce a smoke stream into said cartridge at a high speed by constricting the same, said second disc member being mounted in close proximity to said first disc member and having a portion thereof displaced with respect to the remaining portion toward said other end of the cartridge so as to form two lateral outlet ports at the opposite sides thereof, said displaced portion providing a smoke impinging surface against which the smoke stream constricted by the opening of said first disc member impinges, said outlet ports providing openings through which the smoke stream passes after it has impinged against said displaced portion.

2. The cigarette holder of claim 1 wherein the displaced portion of the second disc member which forms the smoke impinging surface deflects the smoke stream about 90 through the lateral outlet ports into the cartridge.

3. The cigarette holder of claim 1, wherein the opening in the first disc member has a cross-sectional area of about 0.2 mm

4. The cigarette holder of claim 1, wherein the open end of said cartridge is provided with a shoulder on which said first and second disc members are mounted.

than that of said first disk member. 

1. A cigarette holder comprising a cigarette holding member and a mouth piece member, both of said members being removably engaged with respect to each other and defining a smoke passage extending therethrough, and a tar collecting cartridge provided within said smoke passage, said tar collecting cartridge being composed of a substantially cylindrical vessel open at one end and having a substantially restricted opening at the other end thereof and first and second disc members mounted in the open end portion of said vessel to substantially close said open end, said first disc member having at least one small opening adapted to introduce a smoke stream into said cartridge at a high speed by constricting the same, said second disc member being mounted in close proximity to said first disc member and having a portion thereof displaced with respect to the remaining portion toward said other end of the cartridge so as to form two lateral outlet ports at the opposite sides thereof, said displaced portion providing a smoke impinging surface against which the smoke stream constricted by the opening of said first disc member impinges, said outlet ports providing openings through which the smoke stream passes after it has impinged against said displaced portion.
 2. The cigarette holder of claim 1 wherein the displaced portion of the second disc member which forms the smoke impinging surface deflects the smoke stream about 90* through the lateral outlet ports into the cartridge.
 3. The cigarette holder of claim 1, wherein the opening in the first disc member has a cross-sectional area of about 0.2 mm2.
 4. The cigarette holder of claim 1, wherein the open end of said cartridge is provided with a shoulder on which said first and second disc members are mounted.
 5. The cigarette holder of claim 1, wherein the substantially restricted opening of the cartridge is defined by a cylindrical type projection which extends into said cartridge.
 6. The cigarette holder of claim 1, wherein a tubular projection extends from the restricted opening end portion of the cartridge to facilitate holding the cartridge for loading or removing it from the cigarette holder.
 7. A cigarette holder according to claim 1, wherein the diameTer of said second disk member is smaller than that of said first disk member. 